WWC is Celebrating 4 Centuries of the Irish in NJ

The Water Works Conservancy, Inc. invites you to its monthly Members Evening, open to members, friends and the public, Celebrating Four Centuries of the Irish in NJ  with a talk and book signing by the author Professor Dermott Quinn, Thursday, March 24, 7:30 - 9:30 PM, Oradell Borough Town Hall Multipurpose Room (2nd Floor), 355 Kinderkamack Road, Oradell, NJ.

 Join us for a fascinating evening with Professor Dermot Quinn, the author of The Irish in New Jersey: Four Centuries of American Life (Rutgers University Press, 2004), winner of the 2005 NJ Author’s award for scholarly non-fiction.  Prof. Quinn will have copies of his book available to purchase and be signed after the talk.  Irish lovers of all ages, 4th grade on up, will enjoy this engaging and witty walk through the history of Irish Immigrants in New Jersey.  His talk is part of a series of WWC monthly events celebrating Bergen County's Immigrant Heritage.

 “Professor Quinn does more than simply take note of the Irish surnames that popped up in old documents. He asks important questions, the kind rarely raised in ethnocentric histories. What, he asks, did it mean to be Irish in New Jersey in 1690? And did it matter?"-The New York Times.

"Quinn offers a historian's and an Irishman's perspective on the second most populous ethnic group in New Jersey, and does it with a critical eye, salted with Irish wit. He goes beyond the stereotypes and offers a history of the Irish in New Jersey that will provide new information even to those who think they know the story already."-Augustine J. Curley, OSB, New Jersey Catholic Historical Records Commission .  John P. McCarthy, professor emeritus of history, Fordham University, commented on Quinn’s book, "This gem of a book is far from being either simple ethnic celebration or uncritical local history. It is a very subtle analysis of the phenomenon of the Irish in America with a special emphasis on New Jersey."

Professor Quinn is the Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History Education Seton Hall University.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford, 1986; B.A., Trinity College, Dublin, 1981.  His research interests include Catholic history, Irish-American history, and the history of Seton Hall University.  Other books he has written include: Patronage and Piety: The Politics of English Roman Catholicism, 1850-1900 (Stanford University Press/Macmillan, 1993); Understanding Northern Ireland (Baseline Books, Manchester, UK, 1993) 

 Irish conviviality and refreshments will be served at the Members Evening.  Join us for this enchanting evening of tales of the Irish-American experience.   A suggested donation is $5 for WWC Members, $8 for friends and guests, and for students, free.  Please call 201-265-1000, to let us know how many you will be bringing to this Member’s Evening.

The Water Works Conservancy is an educational and preservation advocacy organization dedicated to telling the story of the Hackensack River and the people who have lived in the Hackensack River Valley, Glaciers to suburbs.  For more information, please call 201-265-1000 or visit WWC's website: www.HWWC.org and click on EVENTS